SCHOOL HISTORY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 39, 15 February 1905, Page 10

SCHOOL HISTORY.

<To the Editor.) Sir.—Mr Iliinnier prefers that our children's history hooka shall not be ••tampered with." * So he tolls the public via. yonr columns last Wednesday, his moaning being. 1 presume, that 'school history road through the length and breadth of ihie colony shall b«*~of Protestant origin only. '''Very proper too," for a family of men. a community, or ■"colony" of Protestants, who have settled down to the conviction that the Church of Homo, ancient, mediaeval, and modern, is not partially "bad/ , but has not a redeeming point about it. Although this is a question of endless controversy, there is no controversy aa to how these islands are at present populated: families, tribes, races, creeds are here, with their varied traditions, inter- ! ests. idnals and destiny. Is it poapiblc that they will all ho quiet find vet eacre.r. while, in the persons of their children. they hear and read that the past English race generally did all that was right and everybody else what was wrong; and that English Protestantism is synonymous with Christianity. If "tampering" with our school history hooks wonid in Tolve a less partial reception oi the records of the past, and would tend to i soften differences founded on the natural pride of race, then it might well quickly engage the attention of the Education Department. As .vlmt may be termed "Vaticanism" has really no "hope in any part of the Empire, our Imperial idea i should emulate the great catholic priu-j ciple which equally welcomes al! the i races of men fold. A Protestantism which has failed to do this is "notl feynonymons with , ' Christianity. In the proportion that men believe in and fol- ' low secondary kicks, so will political! harmony and prosperity bu retarded. On ! this ground we should protest against i Protestant histories being patronised by the State without being qualified by ■ Catholic ones—or English histories to' the exclusion of the ancient records of Scotland and Ireland from national sources.—l am. etc.,. JOHN C. KARL.

THE APPLE-GROWING INDUSTRY. (To the Editor.) Sir, —No doubt you are aware that the Government intend to enforce the Orchard and Garden Pests Bill in regard to fruit from all the disease-infected districts. Take, for instance, Auckland. This bill provides that no apples are allowed to be sold ■within the Auckland I province, if infected with more than 5 per cent, of codlin moth, and to be exported from Auckland they must bo free of codlin moth. The Tarawera, when she. last arrived from Auckland, had several parcels of apglcs for Dunedin auctioneers. Three small lots were badly infected wiiii codlin moth, and two other lots showed slight traces. Those that showed slight traces were allowed to pass, and three small lota were condemned, but held over, but subsequently instructions were sent from the Depa.rtnient in Wellington to let them pass this time, but to give the shippers notice that for the future they would be condemned. It is therefore necessary that the Auckland shippers, as well as the Auckland growers, should use every care, to send nothing but the very best to this marke-t.' The varieties that were badly infected were the Gravonstein. Irish Peach and Astrachan. This, of course, is a serious question for the. province of Auckland, where most of the infected apples come from, the other districts being more or less clean. lr- s therefore, behoves the grower to set his house in order and wage war against the pest. In Tasmania the Government assist the gTowers somewhat, and from there we get no infected apples. The Government insert advertisements in the various papers throughout Tasmania v.'Hen the growers are compelled to put on the bandages, and also when they are. to be removed, the bandages always being boiled down or burnt after removal. Spraying is also resorted to, and the family and hired labour are always busy when the moth is on the wing, and every apple that is attacked or stung in the early stages ii picked off and boiled down for the pigs immediately. But independent of this there are still considerable quantities of codlin moth infected apples, as also apples mii fecied with black spot,-* scales, cracks. and various other diseases. These arc taken by cart to the. evaporators, which aro established in the various apple districts. Tho plan*- in cheap, and boy and girl labour is used. The proprietors pay ]/(> per ease for lhc.-e apples, and the /■rower takes "vis empty cast's back with him. These cases contain from ;JO to 40ib. In Ihe factory they aro peeled, cored, and sliced by machinery and evaporated, packed in eases anil sold all over the Commonwealtli at 3d and 6d per lb. the imported evaporated apple, being kept out by liis;h tariff. Thin should l>o done in Auckland also, but as the district is a straggling one, parhaps some arrangement could lip come to with ihc Government to allow all apples to come forward to Auckland, the inspector only allowing tlif; clean fruit to be shipppcl. and infei-terl fruit to be purchased by the evaporator, which could be ina(W-o-operative, seeing that tliere sir.* several strong fruitgrower*' associations in i-he various districts of tlic Auckland province. Wβ ale-", believe that the. (Jovernment would be willing to refund the railages on infected apples that would be condemned to go to the evaporator, or if co-operative evaporators are not In favour, perhaps one of the jam or preserving works in Auckland would lake thifc matter in hand. Although a great deal could be done in the Auckland province to keep the pest in hand we <Jo not think it can be entirely eradicated through the climate being against it. the eocttjn moth getting two or th*Li> brood* in a year: but still, by working and cultivating the orchard well, with bandaging and spraying a great deal could be done. No doubt the. expense is somewhat heavy, but these, charges are .imply repaid by the prices paid for good-keeping •ipplcs later in the reason, seeing i.liat the New Zealand grower is protected by M per bushel case from the 14th July to the end of December, ;uid 0/ per bnslicl case from December to the 14th July. These item* are made* up of freight, harbour dues, cartages, commission and duty, and as the Tnsmanian grower is satisfied with from .*!/ t,o 4/ net per bushel case for the fruit he sends to the Hobart market, surely it should pay the New Zealand grower to grow and cultivate apples and see that they are clean. Other countries are troubled with the same pests under which we suffer in New Zealand, and they make, itpay. Enormous quantities are, grown both in Canada and the United States, and these are shipped via New York to European ports, and sold there with a profit to the irrower. If you take these facts into consideration, and ti'so that Tasmania ships some 700,000 bushel cases per year, surely there is something in" an apple orchard. We would alsi; bring before the various growers and shippers the necessity for care in the grading of the apples. The Tasmanian packing is perfect, but we cannot say the same of Ihose that we get from the North Island. During the months of November and December we had two consignments of apples from Canada, which came from some 300 miles inland, and were shjpped from Vancouver via Brisbane and Syduoy to our port. The appies were beautifully got tip, and were certainly superior fruit to that grown in the I'niied States, both in appearance and flavour. One shipment came as general cargo, and the other was sent under a temperature of 40°. These apples were perfcei. while those, sent as general cargo, but in the cool part of the vessel, were only partially sound, but we believe this was in 'part due to the apples being of good-keeping 1 quality.—We are. r>ti\. A. MORITZSON AND CO. Dunedin. CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE. •'Credit where Credit i= Due' 7 writes: '"Once again one of the Auckland police has been the means of discovering aii outbreak of firo. and although in this case Constable Lipse.ombe was coming otrdutv, his commendable promptitude and zea.! were none the less praiseworthy. Tho fact of the police discovering quite a number of fires makes it easy to draw the inference that discipline is a matter of importance in the Auckland police , force. I am a believer in givins credit where credit is due. and I think ruosi j people will feel more comfortable at night time when they know that the police, by attending strictly to duty, are at the i same time acting as auxiliary firewatchers."' I